Final Countdown: How Three Projects Made it Just In Time

Share this post

Some projects make their goal in the first few days. More often, though, we see the ones that inch toward their goals slowly and steadily. And on occasion, it comes down to a photo finish as the project crosses its funding threshold in the last few hours (or even minutes!). Those are the projects that we, at the Kickstarter office, are watching, refreshing, and obsessing about.

We thought it would be interesting to talk about this final-day phenomenon, so we picked out three creators with projects of varying goal amount, and asked them to talk about the last day. What was it like, with its anxieties, triumphs, and emotional moments? Those three creators were Remy Karns from Classroom Aquatic, Tina Essmaker from The Great Discontent, and Anna Wilson from Delta Mouth Literary Festival.

The funding graph for Classroom Aquatic

The graphs for Delta Mouth and Classroom Aquatic show a pretty gradual climb. How did that feel?

Anna: We have some dyed-in-the-wool supporters, but we have to work pretty hard to remind a lot of busy folks that our fundraising efforts come with expiration dates and that we really truly cannot make the festival happen without grassroots funding. Overall the response was positive and people admired the effort we had to put into the project to maintain activity. Some folks questioned the validity of this type of fundraising, with comments like, "Why doesn't the school just pay for the festival?" This was an opportunity to share information and stories speaking to the need for crowdsourced arts funding, both practically, as states slash arts and education budgets (hello, Louisiana?), and ideologically, as state-funded event will inevitably support a different group of artists than an independent event.

Remy: The gradual climb was something we were very pragmatic about. Despite this being our first Kickstarter, we were all aware of the "bathtub" nature of how projects received funding. Everyone was very excited about the working on the game itself, so we never let a middle-period day with very low funding get us down.

The funding graph for The Great Discontent

Conversely, The Great Discontent had a strong start and then plateaued. How would you describe the response?

Tina: Our community is extremely enthusiastic about The Great Discontent. Our readers are very loyal, and many of them have sent us messages about how the stories of the people we’ve interviewed have had an effect on them, from providing general encouragement to helping them make major career decisions. We’ve always encouraged our community to take risks, and this was a really cool experience because the tables were turned—we were the ones taking the risk, and our readers were the ones encouraging us!

How would you describe your communities in general?

Remy: Wonderfully supportive! It was great to see all the community feedback about the game, whether it was private messages sent to us or people making videos of themselves trying out the demo.

Anna: The LSU literary community is pleased that student organizers have been moonlighting to bring this event together and we have received support from both the English Department and the English Graduate Student Association. A lot of our organizational efforts strive to make the festival truly a community event, and we dedicate significant resources to bringing innovative literary artists out into the larger Baton Rouge community--readings/performances take place at venues around town. We're still building awareness in Baton Rouge but we have received significant support from Baton Rouge Gallery and from businessman Dave Remmetter, an owner at Chelsea's Cafe and Radio Bar.

Tina: In general, people are very supportive. Our readers are amazing, and so are the people we interview—many of them have become friends.

The funding graph for Delta Mouth Literary Festival

How did you keep people engaged with the project throughout its life?

Anna: We used a combination of social media and in-person hounding.

Tina: We did a few things; some were planned, and some were spontaneous. We posted the campaign link in the about section on all of our social accounts (Twitter, Facebook, Instagram, Pinterest, etc.) and on our site. We posted daily updates on Twitter and Facebook to remind people that the campaign was happening. We added new rewards halfway through our campaign to keep things exciting. And a little over halfway through, we added two print-first features to the magazine, one which we chose and the other which we asked our backers to choose.

Remy: We kept the community engaged by listening to their comments and criticisms about our Kickstarter, always letting our backers know that we would answer any and all questions they had, and tailoring our updates and edits based on what they wanted to know more about and what they responded most enthusiastically to. The community around the game was indispensable in helping direct the idea of the game and how we pitched it.

A lot of your support came from the very last day. What did that day feel like, and how did you get through it?

Anna: I sort of pretended that I didn't have room to consider that our project might fail. Yes, it was nerve-wracking, a bit, but I believed in Kickstarter stats that indicated that if we funded substantially we were very likely to make our goal. I deeply believe in the festival's mission and I think this helped a lot. I I just focused on my faith that people would come together to support art and community!

Remy: It was an incredibly emotional experience. On the final day, we were quite a ways away from our goal, and by that time we had come to accept that we weren't going to make it—we were even in the process of mapping out our eventual relaunch! We were all being very pragmatic and objective about it— "Oh, well, you know, it was our first try, we learned so much and can do it better, it was a valuable learning experience and we'll get them next time," but despite all that, I remember feeling a wave of sentimentality towards everyone who had contributed to our project. After I began posting my updates thanking everyone who had supported us, people began taking to social media en mass to bring about support for the game: friends, family, designers I consider my heroes, people who had covered the game or interviewed us, all these wonderful people began working to help us reach our goal. I'll admit, I was bawling. I couldn't suppress how grateful I was to everyone who had help make this a reality.

Tina: When we woke up on the last day of the campaign, we still needed over $35k to meet our goal. We weren’t sure if it was possible. We had raised $30k in the first 24 hours of our campaign, but we had less time than that to raise even more money! In the morning, people were already buzzing about it online; some said it looked like we wouldn’t meet our goal and others were showing support and urging friends to donate. We had already accepted that we might not meet our goal, but we decided to give it one last shot and really promote it.

We spent the day hunkered down at our computers. It was hard to focus on anything; the excitement was palpable, and we were running on sheer adrenaline. We felt like underdogs, but our community carried us over the finish line. It was a true testament to the people who believe in The Great Discontent and us. By the time we reached our goal, we were exhausted, but in honor of the campaign, we met up with Frank at The Meatball Shop for celebratory drinks and ice cream sandwiches. That night, we went to sleep feeling extremely grateful.

Three awesome projects and I'm genuinely happy that they were funded in time - especially the $100k! The closer you get, the quicker everything seems to go. It's great to see that others have shared experiences like these - especially for those running their first Kickstarter campaign. Calms our nerves and gives a bit of inspiration to add our names to the list of those that made it just in time!

Great post. Our project was funded at the last minute too -- what a crazy ride! We had basically three different publicity strategies – two worked and one didn't. A had tears of joy when we finally crossed the goal.

It’s great when community gives such big support to cultural projects, but it’s discouraging to see that they are underestimated by the state. Fundraising is usually the most common practice when people start any initiative. But there are a number of alternative financing options available today we should know about. http://northandloans.ca might be of great use when it comes to solving financial problems. It will be a real support to any event you organize and it will help to cope with lots of financial problems in future.

In high school, she dated the cutest boy in lessons. She was voted college home-coming queen by a landslide. As the young career woman, she was a force to get reckoned with; charismatic and sharp. Now at age 45, he has gained 30 pounds and spends a large number of her days in sweat pants and additional large t-shirts. Why do beautiful mature women, let themselves go away?

Which raises that special bridal shower favor how the guest as well hold in order to for quite sometime. As well as the most famous question bridal shower givers ask is the way much money do we want to be spend. Keep in mind it all begins with how so many people are giving the bridal shower and the amount of cash can they afford invest. I personally have done the bridal shower where the bridesmaid gave the spacial occasion. To the bride-to-be's family live out of town, having said that the groom-to-be's family lives around so they offer a bridal shower to the bride-to-be for a welcome towards the family dance. I find giving a bridal shower as the bridesmaid provides less money to work with, a person already have pay much more than a hundred dollars for the bridesmaid dress, than another forty dollars for the http://www.the-fog.net/birkenstockcanada/birkestock-shoes-80-off.html.

The Lasso, Polygon Lasso and Magnetic Lasso Tool is other useful tools that selects areas a new drawn line that follows either the comb you are employing or snaps to the objects can select reckoning on which feature you select. These tools are incredibly useful but hard to use and takes a lot of practice. Diane puttman is hoping one those advanced features that necessitates a lot of patience and practice to become adept during. Using these tools in addition to the features of the tools you can select objects which varying http://www.the-fog.net/birkenstockcanada/best-birkestock-sandals.html and textures to alter or edit them. The handy for things like selecting a product like a basket with $ 22 . of wine in it that was different textures and blinds.

While it could that entire "specialty" thing is a gimmick, manufacturers and designers have actually put lots of time and effort into designing shoes providing comfort, support and protection during specific sports. To provide a science behind their designs. You will get the advantage their expertise if select a pair that was created with your activities objective.

Need info regarding buy this brand sport shoes? Discover detailed information on them, sandals and much more. So you arrive to our classy online outlet. Our MBT http://www.the-fog.net/birkenstockcanada/birkenstock-women.html can be great for burning much more calories than walking exclusively by yourself. While consider your stroll, the muscles are working much more, and much more oxygen is becoming circulated. As it does this, calories are increasingly being shed faster when compared with out sporting them. This could make its coaching footwear an excellent option to for everyday walking.

Crazy easy summer flowers. For ultra inexpensive greenery, plant grass seed in your pots or large dishes. Just let it make out and progress. Simple, charming and no mowing required!

You make this happen by arranging your furniture such that any person standing at the entrance of your home can state baseboard at the opposite end of area. This gives feelings of space.

I know just how people feel in this situation, our last game Steam Donkey surged late on and just made it over the line - it's nerve racking! Our new game DRCongo: Hope out of Horror, has started well and now slowed down - you just have to grit your teeth and have faith whilst also reaching out as much as possible to people who may not have seen your project.